The survivors of the Parkland High School shooting in February are making a lot of news for their advocacy of gun control. But 1200 WOAI reports a survivor of another mass shooting begs to differ.
Frank Pomeroy is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, where 26 people, including Pomeroy's own daughter, were murdered on November 5 in the worst mass shooting in Texas history.
But unlike the Parkland survivors, Pomeroy now feels more strongly about the Second Amendment and the rights of people to freely and openly bear arms than ever before.
"I put a lot of trust and emphasis on our law enforcement and I praise the Lord for them and the great job that they do," Rev. Pomeroy said. "However, sometimes they can't be where they need to be and be there as quickly as they need to be, and you need to defend yourself."
It was the archtypical 'good guy with a gun,' Steven Willeford, who lives a block away from the church, heard the gunfire that November morning, grabbed his AR-15 from his gun safe, and confronted and stopped the gunman.T
he AR-15 has specifically been singled out as the weapon the Parkland students, and the participants in the March for Our Lives rallies two weeks ago, want to ban.
Rev. Pomeroy says there is no disconnect at all between his calling as a pastor, and his support for gun rights.
"In my mind, God has called some of us to run toward the fight, not away from it," he said. "In Nehemiah there is a phrase that says 'I will pray unto the Lord, and then set a guard at the door to pray against our enemies'."